Observation/Reflection #1: Starting From the Beginning
During this observation, focus on how class begins. Where is your CT before class begins? What is he or she doing? Using the clock on the wall, determine when your CT establishes order and begins class. How did she/he start their lesson? How is homework from the previous night reviewed/collected/assessed? How does your CT engage students during the opening of the lesson?
Observation
The bell rings and students start filing into the classroom. My CT is standing at the front of the class, loading his lesson using a Smart Board and placing the photo copies of activities on the front prep desk/cart. He also puts up today's journal assignment on the smart board. After 1-2 minutes post-bell, students are situated in their tables (4-5 students at each table) and are looking at the teacher. I must say that the students are remarkabley behaved and focused (they do not require much direction nor discipline at this point). My CT typically makes a quick joke with the students and then introduces the journal topic/questions of the day. (Each day, students are required to either answer a question in regards to what they learned the previous class, pose topics of debate and ask for a reaction as an opener, etc). Yesterday's journal entry was "Create analogies for cell membranes and cell wall to objects in real life and explain why". As students get their journals from the crate in the classroom, the teacher asks them to have their homework on their desk. He goes around to each table while the students are writing in their journals and looks of each students homework. He uses a chart where he assesses the homework from 0-5 based on effort, neatness and completness and also passes back previous assignments. He does not collect the homework as he wants to assess students on the effort of the task. He does thoroughly look at each piece of homework. This is his way of taking attendance which is required by the school to be entered into a program called "I-Grade and I'-Parent'. When the pencils have stopped moving or the level of chatter increases, he assumes everyone is completed. Then he prompts a class discussion based on the journal topics. This is his opener into the day's lesson. Before he begins, he lets the class know what their tasks for each day before he moves along. Yesterday, he explained to the class that unfortunately they had to take about 40 minutes of notes before diving into the activity which was "creating a plasma membrane color plate' coupled with using an interactive computer program for "building the plasma membrane using "Wisc-Online" as a laptop tray was available. During this time, I modeled the activity and was responsible for coming around to each station for questions or getting to know each student.
Side note: My Ct shares a classroom with the Department head as she only teaches 1-2 classes per day. My CT has two classrooms because of this. His main classroom is on the 1st floor and he shares another classroom with a Chem teacher on the 3rd floor. Because of this he spends the time in between class moving his "desk or tray on wheels" from each classroom via elevator. This eats up some of his time for preparing. He is efficient and has learned how to overcome this nusence.
Reflections
Using a journal entry or posing a question at the beginning of class to help spark curiosity or cleaverly opening a lesson is one of my objectives when entering the classroom. Choosing the topic or question is the challenging part that will either make these strategies successfull or unsuccessful. As teachers, we must think about the purpose of using certain questions or topics as openers "what do I want me students to understand by asking it" or "What reactions can I generate if I use this" or Will this topic or question actually assess what prior knowledge and/or misconceptions the student have about the topic". The type of question or topic is key! I always planned on introducing a topic and prompting a reaction based on real-world issues relative to the lesson topic such as current events, local pop cultures, etc to bridge the gap. As far as the journals, it is a great way to get the students use to recording their thoughts, making connections to life outside the classroom walls and thinking about their stance on "hot topic" issues. What i would probably do is use a kitchen timer giving the students exactly 5 minutes to make an argument and answer the questions. During this time, I will take attendance, make an preparations or collect homework as I would like to collect the home work to provide feedback to students right away.
Observation/Reflection #1: Starting From the Beginning
During this observation, focus on how class begins. Where is your CT before class begins? What is he or she doing? Using the clock on the wall, determine when your CT establishes order and begins class. How did she/he start their lesson? How is homework from the previous night reviewed/collected/assessed? How does your CT engage students during the opening of the lesson?Observation
The bell rings and students start filing into the classroom. My CT is standing at the front of the class, loading his lesson using a Smart Board and placing the photo copies of activities on the front prep desk/cart. He also puts up today's journal assignment on the smart board. After 1-2 minutes post-bell, students are situated in their tables (4-5 students at each table) and are looking at the teacher. I must say that the students are remarkabley behaved and focused (they do not require much direction nor discipline at this point). My CT typically makes a quick joke with the students and then introduces the journal topic/questions of the day. (Each day, students are required to either answer a question in regards to what they learned the previous class, pose topics of debate and ask for a reaction as an opener, etc). Yesterday's journal entry was "Create analogies for cell membranes and cell wall to objects in real life and explain why". As students get their journals from the crate in the classroom, the teacher asks them to have their homework on their desk. He goes around to each table while the students are writing in their journals and looks of each students homework. He uses a chart where he assesses the homework from 0-5 based on effort, neatness and completness and also passes back previous assignments. He does not collect the homework as he wants to assess students on the effort of the task. He does thoroughly look at each piece of homework. This is his way of taking attendance which is required by the school to be entered into a program called "I-Grade and I'-Parent'. When the pencils have stopped moving or the level of chatter increases, he assumes everyone is completed. Then he prompts a class discussion based on the journal topics. This is his opener into the day's lesson. Before he begins, he lets the class know what their tasks for each day before he moves along. Yesterday, he explained to the class that unfortunately they had to take about 40 minutes of notes before diving into the activity which was "creating a plasma membrane color plate' coupled with using an interactive computer program for "building the plasma membrane using "Wisc-Online" as a laptop tray was available. During this time, I modeled the activity and was responsible for coming around to each station for questions or getting to know each student.
Side note: My Ct shares a classroom with the Department head as she only teaches 1-2 classes per day. My CT has two classrooms because of this. His main classroom is on the 1st floor and he shares another classroom with a Chem teacher on the 3rd floor. Because of this he spends the time in between class moving his "desk or tray on wheels" from each classroom via elevator. This eats up some of his time for preparing. He is efficient and has learned how to overcome this nusence.
Reflections
Using a journal entry or posing a question at the beginning of class to help spark curiosity or cleaverly opening a lesson is one of my objectives when entering the classroom. Choosing the topic or question is the challenging part that will either make these strategies successfull or unsuccessful. As teachers, we must think about the purpose of using certain questions or topics as openers "what do I want me students to understand by asking it" or "What reactions can I generate if I use this" or Will this topic or question actually assess what prior knowledge and/or misconceptions the student have about the topic". The type of question or topic is key! I always planned on introducing a topic and prompting a reaction based on real-world issues relative to the lesson topic such as current events, local pop cultures, etc to bridge the gap. As far as the journals, it is a great way to get the students use to recording their thoughts, making connections to life outside the classroom walls and thinking about their stance on "hot topic" issues. What i would probably do is use a kitchen timer giving the students exactly 5 minutes to make an argument and answer the questions. During this time, I will take attendance, make an preparations or collect homework as I would like to collect the home work to provide feedback to students right away.